Benedict XVI Last Days as Roman Pope

The churches of Rome Benedict XVI will dismiss their bells ringing when Pope leaves Vatican by helicopter

According to Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, the protocol farewell to Benedict XVI will be as follows:

At 16:55 hours on Rome from February 28, Benedict XVI will leave the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

His fair well will be at the Patio de San Damascus. Swiss Guard and a car, he will accompany by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone. The cardinal will move to the Vatican heliport, where a helicopter travels to Castel Gandolfo, about thirty kilometers south of Rome.

Benedict XVI will stay about two months in the residence, which is the site of the Popes summer break.

Around 17:30 pm local Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo reach the helipad of the Pontifical Villa, there will be greeted by the local civil and religious authorities, will peer at the balcony of the residence in which 15 popes from 1626 have passed the summer holidays, will greet the faithful gathered in the square. It will be his last public speech in office.

At 20:00 local will be the last public act of the pope and the only visible sign that announced that Benedict XVI Pope no longer be seen as providing the Swiss Guard at the gate of the palace of Castel Gandolfo completed their service and leave place.

SWISS GUARD WILL PROVIDE SERVICE

From that moment, the Swiss Guard will stop serving Ratzinger, whose security will remain guaranteed by the Vatican Gendarmerie.

Lombardi also reported that on March 1st, already in the interregnum Vacant going since a pope dies or resigns and until a successor is elected, the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the cardinals convene to preparatory congregations of the conclave, whose date will be decided in those days.

Ratzinger Castel Gandolfo will be private notes and documents, while the papacy and the time when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican will be archived.

FAREWELL WITH BELLS

The churches of the diocese of Rome Benedict XVI will dismiss their bells ringing on Thursday February 28 at 17:00 local, when Pope leaves Vatican aboard a helicopter.

The Pontiff will be welcomed also chimes Festive internal Castel Gandolfo, where he will spend his last hours as Vicar of Christ.

In Mexico, the Metropolitan Cathedral bells will ring 60 times DF from 13:00 local time, when it enters into force the resignation of the Supreme Pontiff, to acknowledge their work.

In Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world will have a liturgical act in the Sé Cathedral, in the heart of Sao Paulo. Also, last Friday, there was another Thanksgiving Mass in Rio de Janeiro in the Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo.

COMMEMORATIVE COINS

Meanwhile the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the State of Vatican City is preparing a special edition of Vatican euro coins with an inscription referring to the vacant period.

“These coins will circulate until the conclave to elect a new pope and should be named, as planned, in mid-March,” he told reporters Umberto Moruzzi, a member of the Consultation numismatic Vatican.

With the announcement of the resignation of the Pope, increased demand from collectors to the series of coins of euro system of the Vatican City with the date 2012 and the face of Joseph Ratzinger.